Princeton Steps Up Alcohol Regulation

As Harvard’s administration tightens the College’s alcohol policies, a task force of students and faculty at Princeton charged with tackling the issue of high-risk drinking on campus is considering setting up a room party registration system similar to the one that used to exist at Harvard.

The task force, called the Alcohol Coalition Committee, will report its findings in May, and has hosted two events to solicit student input during the past month. Another event will take place this Friday.

The move to study a potential new alcohol policy comes amid increased concern about alcohol abuse by undergraduates.

In October, Princeton’s administration instructed the university’s security staff to patrol dormitory hallways on Thursday and Saturday nights with an eye toward cracking down on alcohol violations.

At the same time, the university announced new guidelines—that will take effect next fall—which require Princeton’s residential college advisors to investigate any resident seen with hard alcohol.

While Princeton spokeswoman Cass Cliatt said that the new guidelines are “not a change of policy,” students said that in the past Princeton has had a relatively lax approach to alcohol.

In fact, according to Benjamin Oseroff, a freshman at Princeton, the university’s administration at one time more or less “sanctioned drinking through the eating clubs.”

Though eating clubs are private organizations, most Princeton upperclassmen belong to one—setting them apart from Harvard’s exclusive final clubs.

In return for this degree of consent from the administration, Oseroff said, “the eating clubs’ officers underwent CPR training, organized patrols of parties by sober members, and hired outside security services.”

Jessica Baylan, a Princeton senior, said that many students feel that the administration’s new policies are a result of the March 2007 death of Gary DeVercelly, a student at Rider University, which is located five miles from Princeton.

She added that some eating clubs have had legal troubles recently for underage drinking.

But Oseroff said many students believe that the new rules might backfire because, as the university clamps down on alcohol in the dorms, much of the drinking could be driven into the eating clubs, which are autonomous of the university.

Princeton’s recent examination of its alcohol policies fits into a larger trend at other Ivy League schools, including Dartmouth and Yale.